¹ Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame.

² Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen.

³ We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.

⁴ We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price.

⁵ Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest.

⁶ We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread.

⁷ Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us.

⁸ Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands.

⁹ We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land.

¹⁰ Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food.

¹¹ They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah.

¹² Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured.

¹³ The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood.

¹⁴ The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end.

¹⁵ The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow.

¹⁶ The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners.

¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

¹⁸ Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it.

¹⁹ You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal.

²⁰ Why have we gone from your memory for ever? Why have you been turned away from us for so long?

²¹ Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past.

²² But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

¹ Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

² He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,

³ and said, "My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don't go away from your servant.

⁴ Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

⁵ I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant." They said, "Very well, do as you have said."

⁶ Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Quickly prepare three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes."

⁷ Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.

⁸ He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

⁹ They asked him, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" He said, "See, in the tent."

¹⁰ He said, "I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son." Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

¹¹ Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

¹² Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"

¹³ Yahweh said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?'

¹⁴ Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁵ Then Sarah denied, saying, "I didn't laugh," for she was afraid. He said, "No, but you did laugh."

¹⁶ The men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

¹⁷ Yahweh said, "Will I hide from Abraham what I do,

¹⁸ since Abraham has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?

¹⁹ For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him."

²⁰ Yahweh said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,

²¹ I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know."

²² The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.

²³ Abraham drew near, and said, "Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?

²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it?

²⁵ Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?"

²⁶ Yahweh said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake."

²⁷ Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

²⁸ What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?" He said, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."

²⁹ He spoke to him yet again, and said, "What if there are forty found there?" He said, "I will not do it for the forty's sake."

³⁰ He said, "Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?" He said, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."

³¹ He said, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake."

³² He said, "Oh don't let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the ten's sake."

³³ Yahweh went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.